New Puppy - Help please

[Anonymous]

Hi, my ex batts have well and truly settled inn, and their egs are delish!!! We have had delivery of a beutifull red & white border collie; he is 8 weeks old and so friendly but he seems to want to eat the hen's droppings! As the hen's are free range it's pretty hard to stop him eating some without us knowing. Question; are they harmful? :?: I have two books to help train the dog but it's better to wait till he is 16 weeks old to start. We do try to tell him softly not to eat them but he just looks at us with his big blue eyes in wonderment :lol: Advice would be appreciated... Ktee

 

[snifter]

I think its something lots of dogs do. I have given up with our dogs over the years. Telling them off or chasing them away from the muck works in the short term but they sneak back to finish it off.

Never seemed to do them any harm. As a pup I am sure he'll lose interest in eating quite so much of it though :lol: :roll: Just worm regularly etc.

 

[Tim]

Yes, my dog has the occasional go at this too.

I don't think it will hurt either... the most important thing is to socialise the pup to the chickens and their antics so he gets used to them and doesn't decide they are dinner when he's older.

Tim

 

[Deleted Account]

we have 4 dogs, but only 1 of them eats sh*t. Best thing to do is to avoid kisses afterwards! (plus it keeps the place looking neater if they eat it)
seriously, it's called cophrology (or similar); a lot of people reckon animals do it if they are otherwise lacking in vitamins or minerals; I think some just like it, like some humans dont like chocolate

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. Cain seems to be less interested in the hen's poo now though sometimes he picks bits up now and again. He mixes with them everyday; when he came home last Friday he was scared of them, now he want's them to play with him. He has had his fair share of pecks! Have to tell you this story; hubby, I and our son were preparing the ground at the side of our garage as hubby wants to extend it. The hen's are used to following us around whilst digging and weeding looking for yummy worms. Well, now Cain is part of our troup, he decided to dig a bit and waaayyy the hen's followed him around :lol: he did the digging they did the eating! We still supervise him when out and about in the garden as we want there to be total harmony

 

[Tim]

That's lovely. I wish my dog was socialised with chickens... I did take her to meet chickens as a puppy but not for long enough.

Now she sees them as food and she is very focused on catching one if she can!

Fortunately they are kept apart and she doesn't go into the field with them but it's still a shame as I do like getting the ducks out into the garden to clear the slugs.

Tim